Cardinals are an unrelenting bird of prey on defense

Rick Scoppe Daily News Staff jdnsports

Tuesday

Mar 6, 2018 at 6:40 PMMar 6, 2018 at 10:06 PM

Jacksonville faces Northern Guilford, which averages 11.9 turnovers a game

Jacksonville’s defense is predatory.

Up front in the Cardinals’ full-court press you have a small but sinister trio led by 5-foot-1 senior Kiani Gravely in a rotation that also includes 5-2 sophomore Mia Tucker and 4-11 senior Samari Morrison, who sees her role as being “just a gnat.”

Then on the wings you have a pair of players with wingspans that seem to rival condors: sophomore Kennedy Todd-Williams, a 15-year-old who’s already committed to North Carolina, and senior Areon Laurent.

And if they get tired enter 5-8 junior Indya Hill, among others.

“Slow them down and play long,” Todd-Williams said of the role she and Laurent play. “Me and Arie are long on the wings. So if we play long, we’ll be fine – and rotate.”

And on the backline there’s a pair of stout juniors: 6-foot-3 junior Nya Mitchels and 6-2 Makayla Gidrey along with another junior, 5-11 Claire Kellum.

All in all, it’s a formidable mix of speed and length and size that is a big reason why it’s already been an historic season for the Cardinals (23-3).

“Defense is key,” Morrison said. “That’s helped us win a lot of games.”

Laurent and her teammates agreed wholeheartedly.

“Our defense has been really important,” Laurent said. “We’ve been putting a lot of pressure on teams. That’s our main goal, apply pressure and make them mess up so we can go on the other end and get layups.”

A year after winning a school-record 29 games, the Cardinals are in their first state final in school history. JHS battles defending state champion Northern Guilford (27-4) for the NCHSAA 3-A girls’ state basketball title at 5 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

And Northern Guilford coach Kim Furlough, whose Nighthawks edged JHS 42-37 in last year’s East Regional final, knows full well what to expect from the Cardinals.

“Tremendous size, and they’re very athlete,” she said. “We expect press, full court, man, all of it. They do a great job defensively.”

Whether full court or half court, the Cardinals are generally a man-to-man team, although they have used some zone – especially full court, where they deploy a variety of schemes. In defeating Havelock 58-45 in the East Regional final Saturday, Jacksonville shied away from their normal full-game, full-court defensive assault.

The reason, coach Monique Gidrey said, was the court. Minges Coliseum is 10 feet longer than The Bird Cage, and she wanted to make sure her players remained fresh.

But the Cardinals held the Rams to just 23.7 shooting, which coach Anna Spear said was the team’s worse all season.

And while the starting five is key, coach Gidrey said the bench is also vital.

“You have to rotate their legs,” she said. “That’s how we’ve been successful, especially when we played Havelock. We have to rotate the legs in and out.”

Another key is effort. Offense is fun. Everyone wants to score. Defense takes work. You have to have grit and you have to grind. That is usually on full display when the Cardinals hit the court.

“Basketball is a mental game,” coach Gidrey said. “If they can buy into the program, which they have, and we lock down our (opponent), they know teams can’t stop us when we do that.”

The Cardinals average just over 18 steals a game, led by Todd-Williams (5.3), Gravely (3.2) and Laurent (2.8). In all, seven players average at least one steal a game.

Northern Guilford averages just 11.9 turnovers a game.

The pressure starts up front with Gravely, who had 4 of JHS’ 12 steals against Havelock.

“I’ve got to apply pressure first and that’s how we get everything going,” she said. “My role in our press defense is to pretty much … make them go a certain way and slow them down so they can’t see up court and try to push them.”

Tucker agreed.

“Make them not play their game but play our game,” she said. “When I check in I just want to keep the same energy that (Gravely) started with. That’s what we all try to do, keep the energy going.”

And then watch the opponent get frustrated.

“That’s what we want,” Tucker said. “We’re all excited when that happens.”

She can tell the frustration is mounting by the players’ body language and then when they look to the sidelines to their coaches for help.

“Yeah,” Morrison agreed, “and they get angry, want to fight. All kinds of stuff.”

If an opponent manages to escape the “gnats” up front, then it faces the two most athletic players on the team in Todd-Williams and Laurent, whose wingspan seems to stretch from one side of the court to the other.

“The main goal is to basically (get) turnovers and get them frustrated,” Laurent said. “Point guards, they get frustrated real quickly. They’ll start yelling at their teammates. They’ll just throw the ball away.

“That’s when we know we’ve got in their head. That’s our goal on defense to get into the other team’s head. Once you do that, the head of the snake is cut.”

And soon enough the snake – or the opponent – is a goner.

Rick Scoppe can be reached at 910-219-8471 or via email at rick.scoppe@jdnews.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.